Hearthpwn

it can be hard for the rogue when they get their minions freezing trap, it puts them far behind in tempo. also the sticky minions are very useful for when the rogue tries to remove them besides sap. it can also depends on the rogue's list, how many heals they have, because they take a lot of damage trying to remove stuff and stabilize.

yea harrison helps a lot in this matchup, which is why i will sometimes put it in to replace the 2nd shredder when i see a lot weapons, however in my run there were mostly druids so i didn't need it.

Not sure if this is the place to post this, if not the mods can move it appropriately. 

Anyways my first official psychological hearthstone article was released today on the compLexity website!

The topic is about maintaining a strong player mindset queuing into games, a topic that is relatable to anyone. The link to the article is here http://complexitygaming.com/news/4505/

Have a look and if you have any constructive feedback that can help with my next article that would be appreciated! Hope you enjoyed a months time of work.. Haha

Thanks,

TheJordude

Hi everyone, my name is Jordan (TheJordude), I am a professional multi-legend Hearthstone player for CompLexity Gaming and I will be having a look at each of the new Blackrock Mountain cards that will be coming out in April.

You can follow me on:

Twitch: http://www.twitch.tv/TheJordude

Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/TheJordude

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/TheJordude

As of now, not all of the new cards have been released to the public yet, but I will start reviewing each card now so that I don't have to rush do them all at once. I will continuously add the new cards into this review as they get released!

Keep in mind that my review is completely in my own opinion based off what I predict each card will be able to do in synergy with other cards/classes, etc. Of course things may be completely on point or different based off play testing when the cards are actually out.

I will be reviewing each card on a scale of 10. 1 being the Target Dummy of the expansion, 10 being the Dr. Boom essentially.. I will be considering how good the card is on it's own, and the potential it has with other cards and in the meta. Also these ratings are based on competitive games, NOT arena... some cards are made for good value in arena but can not perform in ladder. If you are an arena player you will mostly want to consider statements I make on possible value as that can help your decision on how well it is in arena.

Now.. lets get started!

A little overview of BRM

Before going into all the cards, I would just like to summarize everything about this expansion and what I think will happen to the meta game. So obviously this expansion is pushing out Dragons as an archetype, which I think is really cool cause..Dragons!! But when looking at all the cards, I can say on average most cards are supporting the tempo/midgame sort of playstyle. There are a lot of cards that read "cost (x) mana less for each minion that died this turn", so this supports the style of trading and going for board control so that you can gain tempo and board control, rather than simply going for face which our current ladder is infected by. I like this support a lot as it allows more player interaction and is a real duel on the battlefield.

Rend Blackhand 3/10 

To be honest I do not expect much play about this card... For 7 mana I'd rather play Dr. Boom as the stats and battlecry is far more superior. Looking at the stats, 8/4 is very subpar as it is vulnerable to Big Game Hunter or it can just die easily to trades or spells since this guy is sitting at 4 health. I just think that this card is WAY to expensive for poor stats, and a situational battlecry. Sure having a dragon in your hand isn't that hard, but your dependent on killing a legendary only. I feel that this card is just too restricting and if you are killing a legendary, you can normally deal with them with Big Game Hunter. If you consider legendaries lower than 7 attack, you may think of Slyvanas Windrunner, Harrison Jones, The Black Knight, or class specific legends. But if you think about it, you normally have some sort of answer for those legendaries as they are not too troublesome to deal with, because of this I do not think there is a demand or need for Rend Blackhand.

Grim Patron 4/10

I am not too sure about this card, but I am leaning towards the bottom tier. Reading his effect, it sounds great! BUT you need to consider the cost it's going to take to trigger his effect. Firstly, it costs 5 mana to play this card, and it is likely you won't be playing him on turn 5 as it has a low chance of surviving a turn or taking surviving damage to multiply itself. You have to at least spawn 1 Grim Patron to make this card worth the mana you spent. To do so you may do things such as Mage's hero power to do 1 damage, Warrior's multiple 1 damage effects such as Whirlwind, Death's Bite, Cruel Taskmaster etc, Druid with Moonfire, Wrath. Tying all that together, you need to spend more mana to get him to spawn more of himself, so most likely you have to play Grim Patron on turn 6+ and you need the appropriate activator to combo with it. If you can't activate it yourself you have to pray that this card trades with weak minions, but by turn 5 that is not likely..What CAN work possibly with this card is possibly the enrage warrior (probably the most viable with Death's Bite on turn 4) we are all hoping will sometime be decent, or in a mage or MAYBE a token Druid??? Only time will tell... either way this card can be fun but I do not see much competitive potential at the moment.

Hungry Dragon 7/10

While we say RIP Pitlord forever, Hungry Dragon looks like it can have potential! This is more a midrange card while having synergy with some cards such as Blackwing Technician because it is a Dragon. Just looking at the stats, this card is amazing! 4 mana for 5 attack and 6 health. The battlecry is really what makes this card a very high value minion, or only a subpar minion where you might as well have preferred a Chillwind Yeti or Piloted Shredder. 1 drops have a wide range of possibilities; if your opponent gets something like an Elven Archer, your golden. However, if they get something like a Flame Imp, you may be a bit sad. Also you may have to consider that your opponent just flats out get a minion body which they can potentially buff to trade and get free value or more. Besides the risks, this is a great card just from it`s stats as it has really good attack and really good health, but for my preference, if I was playing a midrange deck, I`d rather fill the spot with Piloted Shredder instead because the deathrattle makes the minion much harder to deal with.

Blackwing Technician 7/10 

I think this is a decent card to run in a midrange dragon deck. If the battlecry goes off, which shouldn't be hard if your running a dragon based deck anyway, then you got yourself a 3/5 for 3 mana, which is a fair amount of stats. The stats on this card is not any better then other cards, as a total of 8 stats is equivalent to other cards such as Ogre Brute, however it does have the most stats without a negative connotation with it. It has 1 more stat than Spider Tank, which is the 3 drop for mech based decks, and that 1 extra health can be quite useful in the first few turns of the game, by possibly getting 1 extra resource your opponent needs to use to answer to it. Even if you have to play this card without the battlecry value, you still have a 2/4 and the 4 health is good with trading into small minions produced by aggro decks like Hunter.

Dark Iron Skulker 3/10

Here we go, the AoE Backstab. Now I think there is potential in arena, however I can't see it being too strong in competitive play at the moment. This card does best against aggro, midrange decks that try to build a board. Whether it's zoo, hunter, pally, this card has the potential to do a lot of damage. BUT Rogue already has A LOT of possible AoE damage with Blade Flurry and Fan of Knives. Fan of Knives may even just be better because it is subject to spell damage boosts, cycles a card, and has no conditions with it. With Dark Iron Skulker it only hits non-damaged minions which may be a problem. If you look at the stats, its not very strong either. It is 5 mana for 4/3, which if you can't use the battlecry effectively, you're just over paying for a vanilla Kezan Mystic, or half a Piloted Shredder. Even in tempo decks I do not think this card can give you an advantage that tempo decks need to gradually build into a win.

Lava Shock 6/10

Another spell for Shaman, but instead of locking you up with overload, you free your mana! In my opinion, I think Lava Shock would be a 1 of card, just to free your overload when absolutely necessary or when you use a lot of overload spells in a turn. Shaman cards use the overload mechanic as a tempo push, giving you more powerful abilities early on at the cost of locking up your next turn, by freeing up your overload your essentially cut down the cost of the overload cards you use (ex. If you play Neptulon, he costs 7 mana to play with a 3 mana overload carrying on next turn. You can add this up to be a 10 mana cost card in total, with Lava Shock you remove that extra 3 mana cost, or if your really strict, convert it into a cost for 2 damage). This may also allow shaman players to play cards that were more risky such as Earth Elemental. Control Shaman players will be happy for this change, but I still don't think that this card will have a huge impact alone for Shaman as it is more of a tech card trying to fit in an already tight spaced deck.

Axe Flinger 4/10

Another attempt in trying to diverse the static control warrior into different types of warrior decks. This fits in more towards the aggressive/enrage warrior deck, dealing damage to your own minions to cause effects. Now first of all the stats on this card for the effect is not bad. The attack is not great sure, it can only trade with smaller minions, but it has 5 health which means I can probably take 2-3 hits if played on time. Ideally you want the full 10 damage from this guy's effect, but lets be real, that's not going to happen often.. But if this card does take 2-3 hits, that's 4-6 damage with possible chips in from the attack. Damage wise that is not that much as you can do just as much with a Mortal Strike, but in a midrange/aggro/enrage deck this card may find a nice spot in it... if the deck ever becomes popular. This card can also combo with things like Inner-rage, Cruel Taskmaster, etc.

Dragon Egg 4/10 

This card is similar to Nerubian Egg where you can spawn a decent minion if you can find a way to activate it. However I think Nerubian Egg is still a better card because you can spawn a 4/4 body, rather than 2/1 bodies. Dragon Egg has potential though, if either buffed, trades with 1 attack minions, etc you have the possibility to spawn 2 or more 2/1 bodies which is not bad in aggressive decks. Although if you do spawn more than 1 whelp you would probably be spending more mana in the process to do so. Because you have to be spending a decent amount of mana to buff up and activate your Dragon Egg rather than normally 1 card for Nerubian Egg I think this card is inferior. At the least you would be getting a 2/1 whelp for 1-2 mana where you can get a 4/4 for a minimum of 3 mana. If you choose to play this card, it would probably be in something like a zoo, mage, enrage warrior, or dragon deck.

Dragonkin Sorcerer 6/10

Another dragon that has a standard stats at 4 mana for 3/5, similar to Sen'jin Shieldmasta without the taunt. Dragonkin Sorcerer would be MUCH better if it had a similar effect of Burly Rockjaw Trogg, where it would grow everytime a spell by your opponent is used rather then having to be targeted. I also believe you have target it, not your opponent? So if this is true then that is another downside. This card can be buffed with your spells, so the possible synergy is very broad (things like priest, mechs, etc) and gives it more flexibility and potential.

Flamewaker 9/10

I think this is a pretty decent card because of all the cheap spells mages can have access to, whether it is spells like Frostbolt, Arcane Missiles, Mirror Images or all the spare parts you get from mechs. If you have board control or it is a dry board, this card is a solid 3 drop as it has a really good 4 toughness, and it can trade 2 for 1 probably against weaker minions. Unlike other cards like Dragon Egg that lost review points due to the extra cost to activate it, even though it will cost you at least another mana to get the full value of this card, just the solid body alone for the 3 mana makes this cards pretty decent. If you play this card later in the game with a couple spells you can get solid value. Similar to Knife Juggler, you can steal value just by playing cards you would normally play, gaining tempo over your oppenent. Flamewaker may also fit extremely well in our good o' aggro mage. The possibilities with getting a lot of damage with combos of cheap spells such as Arcane Missiles, Mirror Images can give you such an advantage that can snowball you to victory,

Core Rager 5/10

Ohhooo this can be a scary card. Like Doomguard, it is a card you ideally want to top deck when you have no cards in your hand to make use of it optimally. Unlike Doomguard, this card has a whooping 7/7 body if you have an empty hand for a base 4 mana. However... there are a couple downsides. It is unlikely you will be dropping this card on turn 4 for the 7/7 body as with Hunter, even when you are a face hunter, you normally still have cards in your hand on turn 4 simply because you do not have enough starting mana to get rid of everything... unless you open up with all 1 drops or something. If your not dropping this on turn 4 it is not as good as it sounds on paper, because if you have to drop it later on say turn 7 when you finally dump all your cards, it is just a Dr. Boom without the bots. Also this card gives your opponent a/more Big Game Hunter targets giving players more value on that card when before the only card that can get BGH in a hunter deck is Dr. Boom or a buffed minion by Houndmaster. So this card would not be very ideal in a face hunter in my opinion, it is possible it can be played in midrange, but it is not as impactful as you aren't playing a 7/7 on turn 4 like you dreamt of. This card is ok for a 4 mana vanilla 4/4, but the 4 drop space is normally filled by Piloted Shredder which is slightly better in my opinion.

Imp Gang Boss 7/10

Similar to Flamewaker and Blackwing Technician, Imp Gang Boss is a 3 drop 2/4 with a decent effect, giving it a similar rating like the others. Again, the 3 mana for a 2/4 body is a solid drop as is already, and with a 4 toughness, it is likely to take 1-2 hits at least, especially if played early. This card synergizes well with both zoo and demon decks. With zoo, you can buff this minion to either get it to be able to trade more, or you can buff the tokens. In a demon deck, you can get a bunch of imps on the board that can trade well or be aggressive and get the possible sack with a Mal'Ganis drop. It is a tough decision whether Imp Gang Boss or Flamewaker is the better card. Flamewaker has the advantage of getting more damage in, but Imp Gang Boss does not rely on any cards to combo with it so you do not invest as much mana into it.

Blackwing Corruptor 8/10

This card is basically the Fire Elemental for dragon decks. This card allows you to gain the tempo you need in a midrange dragon deck to get the board control to snowball the game. The states for 5 mana is actually pretty good as it is basically the same thing as Fire Elemental scaled down by 1. Just like how Fire Elemental is an important 6 drop for standard shamans, Blackwing Corruptor will be an important 5 drop for dragons. Of course the one downside is that you need to be holding a dragon, but in a dragon based deck this should not be too hard to achieve just like Blackwind Technician.

Dragon's Breath 3/10

I am pretty disappointed in this card to be honest.. mage already has great spells at efficient mana cost such as Frostbolt, Fireball, and even Flamecannon for that matter. If you have no board to trade your paying 5 mana for 4 damage... wannabe Fireball. If you are going to trade minions anyway then sure this card could possibly gain tempo, but you would need to be trading a significant amount of minions, and if you have to do that, your losing anyway. Overall this card will probably not see any play just because mage already has amazing spells for a cheap cost.

Nefarian 6/10

I have to admit that the art on this card looks super cool.. unfortunately the it's only a decent card. 9 mana is going to cost you pretty much your entire turn and the spells you would get from any class is likely to be higher than 1 mana. This means you probably won't be able to use the spells you get from the battlecry until the next turn, which may never come if you just end up dying. This card is similar to Thoughsteal as you are taking cards that your opponent might have or has. Whenever you used Thoughtsteal there would always be a chance you get useless cards for you like Shield Slam, Deadly Poison, etc. The point is that Thoughtsteal may grab you useless class niche spells, if you grab minions it is normally decent. With Nefarian you only get the chance to take spells, which means the chances of you grabbing a useless spell is a bit higher. However this also depends on the class your playing and the class they are playing. But for 9 mana and a 8/8 body that is another Big Game Hunter targert I would much rather expect to play a minion that has a higher impact on the game/board like Alexstraza, Ysera.

Drakonid Crusher 7/10

Since Dragons are still looking like they go for the board control and snowball it, scaling later in the game, Drakonid Crusher looks like it has potential. By getting the board pressence you will probably get your opponent down to the lower half of their life in every game, so I do not think the battlecry is dead here. However the card losses some ratings as I don't think (unless everything goes to plan) you will be able to drop Drakonid Crusher on tempo on turn 6 for the 9/9, it will be more likely to be played later on maybe like turn 8 at least. Regardless, if the battlecry does go off, a 9/9 body is very strong for 6 mana, but if it doesn't a 6 mana 6/6 is also pretty solid. Of course this is another Big Game Hunter target, but to be fair any minion that gets sniped down by BGH is going to set you back by a lot anyways.

Volcanic Drake 8/10   

This card is actually pretty crazy! At first glance I thought it cost 1 less for your minions that died, however that is not the case as it states for EACH minion that died this turn. This means if you trade 2 of your minions to for 2 of your opponents minions, you will have a 2 cost 6/4. From what we see in dragons so far, you will get a early/midrange board presence, and there is a high chance your opponent has minions as well. When you are fighting for the board control with minions early on, this card can give you a big push. However the weak side is that it has 4 toughness so it can be taken down a bit easier, but this minion with 6 attack can trade up and it is not a BGH targed, and if you traded before playing this card your opponent may not have an answer anyway.

Majordomo Executus 6/10

Wow so this card is interesting... similar to Jaraxxus, you get to change your hero into someone much stronger and its 9 cost. So what is cool about this card is that if you can control the deathrattle and trigger it on your turn so that you can use the hero power of dealing a random 8 damage shot that would be really good. The fact that you get a rag shot for 2 mana is just amazing. However of course the downside is that Majordomo Executus has to die first which your opponent may play around with silences or just ignore. Another thing you have to watch out for is if your hero becomes Ragnaros the Firelord you will go down to 8 health, and I believe even if you were a warrior you would lose your armor because you are a new hero?? So if your opponent turns you into Rag and then bursts you down for lethal you may just set yourself up to die. This card is more suited for those extended late games when your opponent doesn't have many resources left, similart to Jaraxxus where you play it on a safe turn and gain advantage greatly over the next few turns. This card may also be crazy with Feign Death as for 2 mana you can turn your beloved Hunter into a Ragnaros and start dealing some real damage to the face. And when you get low just crash Majordomo Executus to die or Feign Death again to go back to 8. This card may also go well with Ice Block as it will secure you a turn where you can use this card more effectively.

Chromaggus 7/10

The performance of this card can be quite useful in very slow decks, If you are playing a slow deck against another slow deck you may get a lot of value if you can somehow combo Chromaggus. All you need to get value is to duplicate at least once, it doesn't even really matter what you get a copy off, more cards=more value. I can see this card working well with control warrior or druid as you are playing a lot of high value cards in those decks. This card might also work in fatigue or mill decks as you will essentially out card your opponent. Of course the downside is that this card is really slow in itself being 8 mana but the strong body gives it some security especially if you are in the late game when both of you are top decking.

Emperor Thaurissan 9/10

I think this is definitely one of the best cards of the expansion and the best legendary out of the others 100%. I would compare this card to Loatheb from Naxxramas. This is not only comparing how it is the best legendary from the release, but like Loatheb it is a tempo advantage. Emperor Thaurissan is also good in the same reasons why Ragnaros the Firelord and Ysera are good, as you get the benefits the turn you play it, so it is guaranteed your cards will cost 1 less next turn at least, just like how you are guaranteed a card from Ysera and 8 damage from Ragnaros the Firelord. Just these end of turn effects are so much better than start of turn effects (ehmm Nat Pagle). This is a very high priority target because if this card lives more than 1 turn, your opponent will be able to push cards out so easily and efficiently with their mana. This is very significant as the game is mostly about tempo. I can see Emperor Thaurissan going crazy in ramp druid... especially if you can start out Wild Growth, Innervate, etc and push out Emperor Thaurissan early in the game, thats when you press concede. The stats on this card is also very solid, it costs 1 more than Loatheb [/card]for the same body, but the effect is such a good investment, like if you play this on turn 6 but you have more than 6 cards in your hand you basically play [card]Emperor Thaurissan for free because you save 6+ mana on your cards in your hand for later turns.

Volcanic Lumberer 7/10

I'm in between the 6-7 range for Volcanic Lumberer for a couple reasons. Yes this card can get out of hand if you have a board, trade a bit and push Volcanic Lumberer out for something like 5 mana, in that case you have an Earth Elemental without the overload. If your opponent can't deal with Volcanic Lumberer then you have a huge taunt for potentially a cheap mana cost, however there are downsides to Volcanic Lumberer as like Earth Elemental. Being at 7 attack Volcanic Lumberer is another Big Game Hunter target.. especially since Druid's only other 7+ minion normally is Dr. Boom, BGH is more live in the match up. Also more people are currently playing Black Knight, and if BK comes out as a reponse to your Volcanic Lumberer your really sad... however this happens a lot to druid players as they a lot of taunt targets. For those reasons Volcanic Lumberer is just like another Ancient of War or Earth Elemental where if your opponent can't deal with it, you win, if they can then your pushed behind by a lot where you probably can't catch back up. What makes this card slightly better is just the possibility of being able to play this card at lower mana if you trade a lot. And this card also works if you trade with Force of Nature.

Dragon Consort 8/10

I think this is a great card Paladin needed to participate in the Dragon archetype. 5 mana for a 5/5 body is solid as we see from Loatheb usually being able to trade 2 for 1 or 1-1 with another value minion. Also this card gives you good tempo push, allowing you to drop a dragon for 2 less. This is quite good as dragons are mainly in the higher half of the mana curve so the 2 less mana helps you push bigger dragons early. Most notable are the dragon legends such as Nefarian, Ysera, etc. There is not much I can say about this card as it is just solid in every aspect and there is really no downside since you can drop the dragon at less mana at any time, it is not just a 1 turn time cap.

Demonwrath 6/10

Demonwrath is a card players will have to change their warlock decks if they want to incorporate this card. Currently, Demonlock and Handlock are the most popular variation of warlock, Demonwrath is decent in demonlock as more demons have found their way into the deck, and having Hellfire is sometimes awkward as you have some board as well. If i was going to play Demonwrath I might choose to cut some non-demons for more demons and make the deck play more around getting advantage through board AoE and buffs synergy on demons. This card does not entirely cut Hellfire as I think Hellfire will still be the choice for handlock players as it has more damage and synergy with Molten Giant. This card can also synergize as another activator for Nerubian Egg. Another thing to note is that it costs 3 mana for only 2 damage across the board.. this is kind of weak as it does not clear many threats like Mechs, Midrange decks etc.. it only really clears small minions and aggro decks. Overall I can see this card played in Zoo or Demon decks, but it's not too impressive seeing how warlock already has strong board damage.

Resurrect 8/10 

Resurrect is actually such a good card for priests, that allows them to actually play something on good tempo that can actually push them into a tempo advantage for once. I can compare
Resurrect with Unstable Portal as they are both 2 mana that allow you to potentially get access to a minion with high value. Unstable gets the advantage of giving you any minion so there is a higher reward possibility. On the other hand, Resurrect is more consistent but there is a less chance for high reward... both cards are very solid though. What makes Resurrect extra good is that you are almost always going to get good value off the card. Looking at the standard Priest deck, almost every minion costs more than 2, the exception being Northshire Cleric, Zombie Chow and Wild Pyromancer. You can even manipulate what minion dies by not playing your low drops until you play Resurrect to guarantee value. Any other minion you get will give you good value as there are a lot of good priest cards such as Dark Cultist, Injured Blademaster, Piloted Shredder. If you want to get even crazier you might Resurrect a Sylvanas Windrunner, Sludge Belcher, Ragnaros the Firelord. Resurrect Is just such a good card with great fit in the Priest that gives them a huge tempo swing so I think this is going to be a new staple for the Priest class.

Revenge 6/10

Revenge gives warrior a stronger AoE board clear rather then having to rely on Brawl. Before Revenge, warrior only had Whirlwind or Death's Bite to deal damage across the board. However the warrior was able to maintain control through the weapons and the strong single remove they have in Shield Slam and Execute. If you are over 12 hp, you are just playing a 2 cos Whirlwind. In control warrior you are stacking armor anyway, so it it would not be until you are fairly behind before you can play this card for the 3 damage. Like Whirlwind, this card would not be much use in the control warrior against other control decks, it would most likely just be used for an activator for other cards, however this Revenge will help the warrior matchup against decks they are normally weak against such as Shaman, Paladin, Zoo that it normally has problems dealing with all the small minions. This card is also counter productive in what Blizzard wants to do with Warrior.. it is more a card for the control deck over the midrange/aggro warrior as the AoE may hurt you as the 3 damage can just clear your board since you wouldn't be stacking much armor with that type of deck.. you would just play Whirlwind to activate your cards if anything. So Revenge will probably replace Whirlwind in the control warrior and we yet to see a competitive midrange/aggro warrior deck.

Solemn Vigil 7/10

Solemn Vigil was a needed card for paladin as they lack solid card draw. Lay on Hands is a great card, however it costs so much that you have to be ahead to play it, or it is a desperate play. Solemn Vigil can fit nicely on tempo especially if you are trading a lot of minions. This card has the possibility to be really cheap like for 1 mana, however it is not at all a crazy good card because you have to trade minions and your really only getting a +1. In average this card is basically Arcane Intellect [/card]. This card just helps the paladin not fall behind and keep up without having to play awkward cards like [card]Acolyte of Pain or waiting to play Lay on Hands.

Fireguard Destroyer 8/10

After the expansion I can definitely see overlock shaman a thing again. Fireguard Destroyer is like a larger Water Elemental as it can get up to be a 7/6 for 4 mana (5 counting overload). Ideally rolling a 6/6 would be best to avoid Big Game Hunter or even a 4/6 against Priest. If you get a 4-6/6 this card is actually pretty insane for turn 4 as it is so hard to deal with unless you trade 2-3 cards into it or have a Fireball and you can't even really silence it as it would still be a 3/6. Shaman's turn 5 is usually kind of awkward anyway, normally you clear, totem or Azure Drake. If you are on tempo, you will not be crippling your important turn 6 for Fire Elemental. Shaman is more of a RNG class, next to Priest having a lot of random factors, but this card will generally be a solid card that will probably see play in all standard shamans.

Druid of the Flame 5/10

On paper Druid of the Flame is a good card, 95% of the time you would choose the 2/5 option and you can probably trade 2 for 1 with this minion. This card also synergizes with a little bit with Druid of the Fang if you somehow play it the turn after to get a 7/7. However beast druid is not really a thing as the class does not have many beasts itself and there are not good enough neutral beasts in the game at the moment. Also why play Druid of the Flame when we have Blackwing Technician that can grow into a 3/5 that kills Druid of the Flame. Just like Druid of the Fang I do not see much potential with this card at the moment.

Gang Up 6/10

In the current meta game, Gang Up won't be too good of a card. It is a cheap spell that fills back up your deck, which may be nice to have extra Si7: Agent. However, Oil Rogue is dominating, as long as Oil Rogue still has the potential to get big burst damage, Gang Up will not be useful as the deck isn't too reliant on decks anyway. This card may become useful later in the meta if it shifts towards a stage where you minion battles are very important and control/tempo rogue become a viable deck again. I was also thinking that Gang Up will be good in mill rogue. You can fill your deck with Deathlord or Coldlight Oracle and just fill up and fatigue your opponent.

 Quick Shot 6/10 

It seems like Blizzard really wants Hunters to dump there hand with Quick Shot and Core Rager. I would see this card in face hunter more over than midrange hunter because when you are playing midrange hunter you normally don't have an empty hand because you have more expensive cards to play, while in face hunter you may exhaust your cards as they are mostly under 3 cost. However Hunter players try to maximize damage by incorporating the hero power every turn. With Quick Shot Hunter players will have to adopt they way they play as Quick Shot does deal a bit more damage for 2 mana, and it cycles a card that can potentially deal more damage. Although this may be an efficient way to deal more damage I do not think this card is too great  if you can't dump your hand while being most effective damage wise if you want the most value out of it.

Twilight Whelp 7/10

Just like Zombie Chow, Twilight Welp is a great card to play on turn 1-2 so you do not get blown away by aggressive decks. If you are playing Dragon priest, it would not be difficult to get the battle cry off, and hae a 2/3 body trades very nicely early on. There is also no downside with this card like Zombie Chow (even though the deathrattle is irrelevant when playing priest) , and it is likely not going to be silenced. There is not much I can say about Twilight Welp as it is so similar to Zombie Chow and all the benefits of it are the same, it will just be a replacement if you choose to play dragons.

So this is my review on the BlackRock Mountain expansion set. Remember things change as they are actually release and when new cards come out that synergize well with these cards. The best thing to get an opinion of the cards is to just try them out, play test, experiment and see what works!

Comment below on your opinions of the cards, if you disagree or agree, or if there are some cool combos you came up with to make these cards better. Overall I think the set is ok... but only time will tell along with more releases how these cards perform.

yea the new weapon can definitely help this out as well as enrage decks which I'll probably mess around with : P

I'm actually testing a build with a few changes like no cairne and stuff... i'll make an update if its better but yea either tazdingo or yeti is a good replacement.

i like the 4-6 drops for the mid game as this deck can't win quick enough or dominating enough with just small minions alone. I find that i can usually mulligan out the 4-6's to get my early curve.

i like the 2 cold bloods as it can really help get over big minions or put a lot of pressure on board, but its all preference as i do lean more over as an aggressive player.

Yea I think replacing Leeroy for a yeti/tazdingo is fine but im not sure on the smith

i still like the 1 sap in here cause it can really slow down your opponents deck. defias is a good early game card but later on in the game he can be dealt with a bit easier.

You can probably replace the the 4 legendaries for cards like chill wind yetis, 1 sprint, and maybe an assasins blade or boulder fist ogre. its really up to you, try card that are good mid game and that can bring some good value and see what you like : )

Overall I just would like to say that the fact that you were able to reach legend using what is arguably the weakest class in the current meta means a lot about your skill as a hearthstone player. Yeah, I understand hunters get bashed on a lot due to their fellow aggro face hunter brothers, but to be able to skillfully master a Midrange Hunter deck and achieve legend with it, is truly something pretty special, especially the fact that you are currently sitting at top 10 legend with a Midrange hunter, which is not really that common these days. Anyways, I want to say pretty awesome deck list and thank you for sharing it with us, I unfortunately do not have a second snake trap so I decided to just replace it with a bear trap. I also made a video using the deck that you are free to use as you like, the video has a very pivotal moment in which it shows an example of your points in knowing when to be aggressive and when to save your burst, or playing for the following turn. I hope you all have an amazing day and night, and enjoy the Superbowl to all those that are going to watch it!

Yo, dude, I made a video about the deck. Pretty nice face hunter there, or yeah let's call it a trap hunter.

10/10 Got kids rage adding me after I beat them with the deck. I continually say "REKT" to their comments about how I am a skill-less hunter, then they say I am raging and am bad. So needless to say, the deck is working as intended. Go Face Hunter!

Upped for trolden value. Double Lock and Load under a Millhouse Manastorm is kinda infinite value.

It probably depends on the MU. Against Paladin it might be worth waiting for that play for turn 2 if they just use their hero power. Mostly I feel like using Webspinner turn 1 is a good call, and waiting awhile before using Knife Juggler for value in combination with something else.

Great deck. 4-0 so far. Shows off what I love about Hunter really well.

This deck is very strong and I have considered many times just playing mid-range hunter to legend because honestly I feel as though it is probably one of the strongest decks for laddering IMO.  Though my opinion isn't from a pros perspective I have tried out a lot of decks and at least for me mid-range hunter just flows well, plus there are times I get completely destroyed playing against mid-range hunter lol!  Anyways thanks for the deck guide and I hope my gameplay does the deck some justice :p !

Maybe he is advertising his stream a bit, and perhaps that is a bit cheeky but so what. What he wrote was well written and for the most part fairly reasoned and it has sparked some interesting discussion. Since you mentioned Trump as a higher authority in Hearthstone, I will mention a video he did recently where he gave advice to new twitch streamers. He suggested that a streamer should find opportunities to attract people to their stream, and the OP has found an opportunity to write a nice card review and if that ends up encouraging a few more people to visit his stream then good for him.